San Diego Part Dos: Salva Las Trocas!

Hola.
After some careful perusing on Yelp, I chose to check out Tacos El Paisa with a few friends. If you're a UCSD student reading this, let me share with you my two cents. The popular hangouts a.k.a. The Big Three: Rigobertos(formerly Robertos II), Sergios and Cotis are always good because they're close, open 24 hour, and got some bomb pollo asada fries. But if you're looking for some flavorful meat and so good you-want-to-kick-someone-in-the-face tacos, you gotta go elsewhere mang...(I hate the word "mang" and would never say it, but for some reason, I like how it looks when written out/said in my head).


When we arrived, we were a bit confused because there was an inside seating area, as well as a truck. We went inside, and there was a kitchen with a counter, so we tried to order there, but we were told to order outside. I felt everyone was staring at us because we were the only Asians in there. When we went out, the man in the taco truck must have sensed how lost we were and beckoned us towards him. He was a very friendly guy and expertly cut some adobada on a plate for us to sample. (I wish I could think of the proper word I want to use to describe him. He was a very efficient fast working man who bobbed his head and bounced his body along with the music while he made the food. Anyhow back to the post) The adobada was GOOD and had a slight spiciness to it. I wasted no time in telling him what I wanted, but he pointed me to the stand next to the truck. You order there and give your receipt to the man in the truck, who then proceeds to make your order real quick. So I ordered four tacos: asada, birria(shredded beef), cabeza, and adobada.


The menu. Unfortunately, no lengua that night. Fresh made to order tortillas, as you can see the lady making them.


I was also excited about this trip because I read that they had some good aguas frescas, and I had never had them before. The drinks they had were strawberry, cantaloupe, jamaica, egg nog, and horchata. I got the strawberry, and it was muthaf****** delicious (if my language offends you, I'm sorry, but I only use the word to demonstrate the extremity of how tasty this was). It tasted a bit like a milkshake, but more strawberry flavor than milk and without the thickness. I also got the try everything else but the jamaica and found that the cantaloupe one was really good too. (They'll give you samples if you ask for it.)


While we were waiting, I noticed someone cooking up the asada over coals. What was in that pot though?


A closeup of the meat being grilled, along with some chilis and onions.


The young man working the grill soon came over carrying out a plate of some veggies, salsas, and guacamole, as well as those grilled onions and chilis for all of us. I particularly liked the green salsa.

When this came out, we were all smiling from head to toe. I mean, I've seen pictures of this on other blogs, but to finally experience this myself was awesome. Maybe you're thinking, what the hell is this guy raving about. It's just a plate of some stuff, so what. I guess I was just happy because this was something new for me. It just kept getting better and better, and the food hadn't even come out yet! The service was so friendly and accomodating. I LOVED it!




They also had red chilis too.


Inside the pot were beans! Everyone got a cup of that as well, and they were good. (If you're wondering why some pictures were outside, they originally thought we were gonna sit outside, but with the cold weather, there was just no way and we brought everything in.)


These were some big tacos with generous portions of meat. I particularly liked the asada because you could really appreciate it being grilled on the coals. The birria was also good, and I thought the cabeza was okay.


Being the big eater (I prefer this term over glutton or fatty) that I am, I went out again and ordered a buche(cow stomach) taco and a pollo quesadilla. It was my first time having buche, and I thought it was a bit oily/salty, but was still good with the salsa. The pollo had a bit of citrusy flavor to it and went great with the mexican cheese.


Inside look of the quesadilla.

Overall, I loved everything here and would definitely come back here again. I've read on Yelp that they have some other locations around Daygo as well. Not only is the food delicious, but the workers are all friendly and make you feel welcome. Fresa aguas frescas ftw.


Tacos El Paisa
3069 National Ave
(between 30th St & 31st St)
San Diego, CA 92113

San Diego Part I: Thumpity Thump Thump...

Heyo.
I am back from my short trip to SD. It was great seeing everyone again, especially those who I had not seen since I had graduated. Being able to come down after such a long time made me realize how much I missed San Diego...Anyhow, enough on the nostalgia and onto what I had for lunch.
I met with some friends at Madras Cafe in the Indian Plaza off Black Mountain Road and Miramar for their buffet lunch, which was around 8 or 9 bucks. The place serves southern Indian food and is vegetarian. I don't remember exactly how many different items there were, but it was around 10-15.


All their ware is stainless steel from the trays to the cups. There is a pitcher of water on each table, which is a good thing for people like me who drink a lot.


Here's a plate of all the stuff I got. I really need to start taking some notes; I can't remember much but will try my best. From the top left corner and going clockwise, a spinach dish, okra (which had a spicy kick to it), cauliflower, carrots, and potatoes that was cooked with coconut, two types of rice, pickled lemon(i think), pakoras, and a salad with yogurt on it. I don't really know much of the names or what was in it. On the top three dishes, I did see some kind of seed that tasted like licorice. One friend remarked that none of the ingredients seemed very fresh.


There were also two kinds of soup available, and although I had both, I only took a picture of this one. It was sour tasting and had tomatoes in it.


Shortly after we had gotten our food, a waiter came out and gave us each an idli, which is a steamed cake made from fermented black lentils and rice. I enjoyed this and wish I could have had another.


We were also given a masala dosa, which was a crepe made from rice and lentils and was filled with potatoes. To the right was some kind of puffy thing. I've tried to look it up, and I think it might be puri. My puff was the only one that came out deflated. Winner! It was a bit oily, and I thought it was okay. There was also something else available that could have been puri, but I didn't take a picture of it. All I know was that on my first bite, it tasted like a shrimp cracker.


There were also two types of dessert available. One was some kind of sweet milk dish, which I thought was a little watered down, while the other was a rice pudding? dessert that was way too sweet.

The service was friendly when we first came in, but disappeared from sight soon after. I know this is a buffet, and it's all about self sevice, but they never took our plates away, and the place wasn't that busy either. Also, memory is a fickle thing, but I thought that the food was better on my previous visits. I've heard that there is some good Southern Indian places in Artesia and will definitely have to try one of those places out to get a more rounded view on what Southern style is all about...

I ate two plates and boy was I full. I definitely regretted eating too much because this stuff did not go down well, and my stomach was killing me later on that night.


9484 Black Mountain Rd
(between Activity Rd & Miramar Rd)
San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 695-6229

What was for dinner? A sweet taco truck found through Yelp. Lots of pictures. Comin soon...

Mandarin House

I ended up not going down to SD because I was too tired to drive today. I'm going to leave tomorrow. So with that said, here's a Thursday post.

I went to LA/Koreatown this week after my finals to take my grandpa out for lunch. He's over 90, and this man still loves to go out to shop and eat. As we entered the food court, he started getting really excited, just because there was so much variety and forgot that we were there to go to Mandarin House, one of his favorite eats in the area. The place serves Korean-Chinese food.


I haven't tried many things here because we go here mainly for the jjajjangmyun (black bean sauce noodle). It is derived from the Chinese dish, but the taste is definitely different. I've only been here for lunch, and a lot of times, there's a bit of a wait, but never longer than 10-15 minutes. The inside of the place isn't that big.


After we were seated, we were given the standard: tea, cabbage kimchi, and raw onions, which I enjoy with a bit of vingear, with black bean sauce. I thought the kimchi wasn't ripe enough. It tasted like they just made it that day, and it needed to sit out for a bit longer. It's usually good though.




I ordered the gan jjajjang for a little over 8 bucks. The sauce and noodles come out separately, and you have to mix it together. They were a bit skimpy on the cucumbers, and I wish I got more. The noodles were cooked fine, and the waitress cut them for me. It's a pretty good portion, and you'll definitely be full. The sauce had small chunks of pork, lots of onions, and some zucchini. I don't know why, but the past couple times I've eaten this, I started having really bad gas pains. I think it was just eating too much of the onions and the fact that my stomach has gotten more sensitive lately because this never really happened until this year. So a caveat to you all. I was careful not to eat all the onions this time although I wanted to. Next time, I'm just going to pop a couple tums after I eat.
The jjajjang for the most part has been pretty consistent here, and I personally think it's a much better place than what the DB and Rowland Heights area offers. It's the sauce that's superior to the other places I've tried, and I think it might be because of their liberal use of meat. I've also tried their jjamppong here and wasn't very impressed with it because I thought the broth was bland and oily, but like the jjajjang, it came in a big portion.

Service wasn't that attentive. We had to ask for everything, but they were pretty busy. I've never really had a problem with the service here though overall.

Mandarin House (Koreatown Plaza 1st Floor)
928 S Western Ave Ste 147
Los Angeles, CA 90006

Free small fries from Carl's Jr.

(taken from spoofee.com, courtesy of the lakers)